55.37% voters help lotus bloom in DK, Udupi

The Congress leaders are yet to come out of the shocker of the humiliating defeat in the coastal districts of DK and Udupi.

A close look at the voting percentage in both the districts for the Congress and the BJP, meanwhile, reveals a slight dip for the Congress when compared with 2013 elections, while there is a huge jump for the BJP.

The Congress secured 43.39% votes in DK this year, which is 4.91% lesser than last elections when it had secured 48.3% votes. Similarly, the party polled 38.56% votes in Udupi in 2018 when compared to 47.9% in 2013 elections, which shows a fall of 9.34%.

The BJP, on the other hand, polled 53.3% votes in DK in 2018 elections, a whopping 13% more than the 40.3% in 2013 elections.

In Udupi, the BJP secured 57.45% votes in 2018, when compared to 34.7% in 2013 – 22.75% more than the 2013 elections, perhaps unprecedented in the history of Udupi district.

The 55.37% polling for BJP candidates in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi is a record for the saffron party when compared to the 40.97% for the Congress in the coastal districts.

Quite interestingly, of the 8 Assembly constituencies in DK, the Congress and the BJP candidates were the same in Bantwal (B Ramanath Rai vs Rajesh Naik U), Puttur (T Shakunthala Shetty vs Sanjeev Matandoor), Sullia (Dr B Raghu vs S Angara) and Moodbidri (K Abhaychandra Jain vs Umanath Kotian). But there was a drastic change in voter percentage in all the four constituencies.

While the winning candidate in Moodbidri, Umanath Kotian (BJP) had managed to poll only 37.6% in 2013, he secured 57.55% votes this time (19.95% more this time). In contrast, former minister K Abhaychandra Jain (Congress) secured 37.94% this time when compared to 41.28% in the last elections (3.34% less).

In Bantwal, District In-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai (Cong) secured 45.05% votes this time when compared to 52.28% in 2013 elections (7.23% less) as against U Rajesh Naik (BJP), who secured 53.85% this time when compared to 40.8% in 2013 elections (13.05% more).

In Udupi too, the Congress and the BJP candidates were the same as in the last elections in three constituencies – Karkala (H Gopal Bhandary vs V Sunil Kumar), Kaup (Vinaykumar Sorake vs Lalaji R Mendon) and Byndoor (K Gopal Poojary vs B H Sukumar Shetty). Though the votes secured by former minister Vinaykumar Sorake (44.25% in 2018 and 46.3% in 2013) were just 2.05% less than the last elections, the winning candidate Lalaji R Mendon managed to get 7.79% more than the last elections. In Kundapur, while Rakesh Malli (Cong) secured 29.61% votes this time when compared to 28.74% votes polled by 2013 Congress candidate Shivram Shetty (0.87%), Haladi Srinivas Shetty (BJP) got 54.68% more votes than the 2013 BJP candidate Kishore Kumar. In Udupi, Pramod Madhwaraj (Cong) managed to get only 44.8% votes this time when compared to 62.7% last time (17.9% less), against K Raghupathi Bhat (BJP) who secured 52.24% votes.

Meanwhile, a total of 15,653 voters preferred NOTA in DK and Udupi districts. They include 8,809 voters in DK and 6,844 voters in Udupi, which is much more than many candidates belonging to national as well as regional parties and Independent candidates.